Participation and representation in the public sphere

At the time of review, certain countries that are key regional players, such as Mauritius, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, displayed high gender disparities in terms of representation in the public sphere. At the time of review, these countries lacked formal affirmative action measures for women as principles of governance and gender equality. Since then Kenya’s 2010 Constitution has entrenched affirmative but there is still a problem in the lack of implementation. Mauritius has also embraced affirmative action.

The United Nations posits¹¹¹ that societies in which women are excluded from public life and decision-making cannot be described as “democratic”. The meaningful and substantive inclusion and participation of women on equal terms with men in governance and public office is key to ensuring that the perspectives, concerns and experiences of women are articulated and integrated into critical decision-making mechanisms and processes. The Beijing Platform for Action notes:

“Women in politics and decision-making positions in Governments and legislative bodies contribute to redefining political priorities, placing new items on the political agenda that reflect and address women’s gender-specific concerns, values and experiences, and providing new perspectives on mainstream political issues”.¹¹²

Women reap greater numeric gains in the public sector than in the private arena but nevertheless remain under-represented overall, despite laws and policies on equality in all reviewed countries. This is the case even in countries that indicate greater gender ratios of females than males in the education sector, such as Mauritius and Algeria. This suggests that other variables are preventing equality or even equity in female representation in public spheres and it points to socio-cultural, religious and political barriers.

Indeed, a small number of countries that were reviewed did make remarkable strides in increasing the representation of women in governance and even achieving and exceeding the target of 30 per cent parliamentary representation, particularly Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa as indicated in the Table¹¹³ below. However, in many other countries, the women’s representation remains mostly below 20 per cent in the legislature and way below that in the executive arena. Some countries have newly undertaken or scaled up affirmative action measures after the National Programme of Action implementation to address gender imbalances, but this is more evident in the legislative sphere than in any other field.

111 CEDAW General Recommendation No 23 A/52/38, paragraph 14.

112 Paragraph 182.

113 The Column on NPoA responses are incomplete due to lack of access to relevant NPOA Implementation Progress Reports. Figures of current Parliaments obtained from the Inter Parliamentary Union website “Women in Parliament” http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm.

Table 8: Representation of women in parliaments and cabinets at the time of review and as at 1 August 2014

Country Ministers Members of

Parliament

Affirmative action measures at the time of review

Changes after implementation of the National Programme of Action

Mauritius 10% 17.4% None

The representation of women in Parliament stands at 18.8%.

There are only two female cabinet ministers, i.e. 8%. There is a new gender-quota law and at least one-third of the candidates in local elections must be women.

Only 6.4% of village and town councillors are women.

Mozambique 25.9% 39.2%

Quotas by FRELIMO 30% affirmative action seats at local council level

There has not been another election cycle since the review

Nigeria Figures not available

7.0%

7.3% Senate 6.4% House of Representatives

National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy Document promotes

affirmative action and 30% women’s representation where necessary

The representation of women in Parliament stands at 6.7% and women in cabinet at 31%

Country Ministers Members of raised the bar for a minimum 50% representation of women in all structures of government.

This was not adhered to nor was the “zebra” proportional representation on the party list, i.e. alternating men and women candidates. 115 (46%) out of the 249 ANC seats at national level are held by women, which is 4%

less than in 2009.

The representation of women in Parliament currently at 40.8%.

Women in cabinet remain at 41%.

Women premiers dropped from

Country Ministers Members of that women form 30% of all newly recruited public servants Parliament stands at 19.1% and in cabinet Parliament stands at 31.6%. In a move hailed as “historic” by the United Nations, 7 women were appointed to the Cabinet. A new law passed in 2012 provides for a quota system for women’s participation in Parliament. Cabinet stands at 39%. 67% of Assistant Ministers are women.

Lesotho is ranked first in sub-Saharan Africa by the Gender Gap Index, and eighth in the world for closing the Gender Gap by 76.8 per cent in 2010. ¹

The National Assembly Elections Act of 2011 stipulated that one third of seats in local government be reserved for women

Country Ministers Members of decision-making positions at all levels of government is not adhered to Ghanaian women activists

compiled a list of potential women candidates to be called upon for public service by government

Country Ministers Members of in April 2009 setting quotas for legislative and municipal elections.

In 2010 Government set a 20%

quota for women in all party lists for parliamentary elections. The Constitutional Court nullified this on the grounds that quotas for women candidates violate the principle of gender equality guaranteed by the Constitution.

The 2011 elections were held without any women’s quota for party lists and this accounts for the low numbers

Sierra Leone 8% 14.5% No affirmative

action policy

The representation of women in Parliament stands at 12.1%

The representation of women in Cabinet stands at 11%

Country Ministers Members of nomination of a minimum of 30%

representatives of women where Cabinet and there are four women deputy ministers

The above table is based on the most attainable indicators from the country review reports, as other indicators were documented inconsistently.

In countries such as South Africa, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the representation of women in Parliament dropped, despite making progressive commitments in the National Programmes of Action.

For example Nigeria’s country review report indicates that women constitute 49.6 per cent of the population, they are responsible for producing over 70 per cent of the nation’s food supply and yet their level of participation in governance and decision-making is below 5 per cent; women are also under-represented in appointments to parastatal bodies at state and federal level, and ambassadorial appointments. In some instances, offices of the Commissioner for Women‘s Affairs that exist at state level were not filled or existent, or were occupied by a male Commissioner.

4.3.1 Affirmative action in politics

Women are grossly underrepresented in the elective/political life of many of the countries that were reviewed, giving some substance to the finding in the Benin country review report: “In politics, women are often treated in a diabolical manner”. This statement could very well apply to several other countries that were reviewed and strengthens the perception¹¹⁴ that men, across virtually all cultures, are socialized to see politics as a legitimate sphere for them to act in. Even where affirmative action measures have contributed to women’s presence and increased women’s leadership in the political, public and social arenas, this is not always commensurate with the quality of decision-making. In many instances, as noted in the Nigeria country review report, men and women alike view the involvement of women in politics as deviant behaviour. It is likely that gender stereotypes such as this lead to the exclusion of women and account for their low presence in the public and political spheres.

Affirmative action measures are central in addressing obstacles to women’s participation. There is demonstrable evidence¹¹⁵ to show that quotas can affect women’s representation positively. This is evidenced in Rwanda, which leads the world in terms of women’s representation in Parliament. Indeed, affirmative action quotas have been used in all countries with good representation of women in the legislature, as is evident in the table above.

114 Matland, Richard (2005). “Explaining women’s representation: The role of legislative recruitment & electoral systems”. EGM/

EPWD/2005/EP.4. 12 December 2005. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Expert Group meeting on equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes, with particular emphasis on political participation and leadership. 24-27 October 2005. page 2.

115 As before.

What are the desirable thresholds of women’s participation in public life? The Beijing Platform refers to a “critical mass” of women leaders, executives and managers. General Recommendation 23 refers to studies that demonstrate that when women’s participation reaches 30 per cent to 35 per cent, this is a critical mass with potential for real impact on political style and content of decisions and potential to revitalise political life. This logic resonated within the women’s movement and is reflected in the system quotas or proportional representation for women, which aims to ensure that a substantive minority of women are well-placed to influence legislation in favour of women.

Few of the countries reviewed can elicit this kind of dynamic move towards passing a significant threshold number of women leaders, although Rwanda and South Africa stand out as beacons in this regard in the legislature and executive respectively. The country review reports of South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique clearly illustrate that setting gender quotas for public office has had positive results in increasing women’s representation, although there is no evidence to correlate this to results in influencing laws, policies and programmes in favour of women. The country review report of Uganda shows that affirmative action measures across the board need to move beyond numbers to substantive participation in agenda setting and decision-making.

The majority of the country review reports show dismal performance in achieving the target of 30 per cent female representation in various sectors, as shown in Table 8. In many country review reports, reasons assigned for women not taking up or being appointed to public office include lack of capacity, timidity and fear, as well as lack of self-confidence or support from fellow women. These aspects cannot be overcome simply by laws and policies, but require longer-term action by diverse stakeholders, including civil-society organizations, political parties and government as well as community and opinion leaders.

The concept of “critical mass” has however been discredited for being rather simplistic, as it puts women in a homogeneous group of political actors with common interests. There indeed exist several instances where increased female representation in Parliament has been unproductive or inimical in influencing laws and policies and it is recognized ¹¹⁶ that female minorities may end up conforming to dominant male norms, party ideologies and positions. Instead “critical actors” are needed - motivated female or male individuals or groups who initiate and champion¹¹⁷ gender-friendly policies or legislative positions or actions that will influence these.

It is imperative for women and women’s affiliations¹¹⁸ to commit to influence the politics of the day towards gender equality. This calls for sustained training¹¹⁹ for women and girls in advocacy, fundraising, leadership, self esteem, public speaking, self-assertion, political campaigning and the electoral process.

The African Peer Review Mechanism implementation progress reports of countries such as Lesotho, Uganda, Ghana and Mozambique reflect that concerted actions are being undertaken to boost affirmative action interventions.

4.3.2 Political parties:

Political parties are an essential springboard for women to take up leadership positions and to represent female constituencies and positions. However, a study of the country review reports reveals that, in the majority of the countries, the party list for candidates tends to reinforce gender-discriminatory patterns of exclusion and subordination to male counterparts. In such a setting, gender-neutral party rules are manipulated to benefit men, as evidenced in Nigeria where the country review mission was informed

116 Childs S and L Krook (2009). “Analysing women’s substantive representation: From critical mass to critical actors”. Government and Opposition, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 125–145.

117 As before.

118 Miranda, Rosa (2005). “Impact of women’s participation and leadership on outcomes”. page 3. EGM/EPWD/2005/EP.7 12 IPU Expert Group Meeting.

119 General Recommendation 23.

that women seeking primary elections within party structures have been asked to step down¹²⁰ in favour of a male candidate because male candidature is considered more likely to attract votes. A few National Programmes of Action undertake legal reform in this regard, although only South Africa reports concrete results in this regard.

The Beijing Platform requires¹²¹ political parties to review party structures and procedures to eliminate discrimination against women’s participation, develop initiatives to encourage women’s participation, incorporate gender issues in their political agenda and ensure that women can participate in the leadership of political parties on an equal basis with men. Thus, as shown in the Table above, Mozambique, Rwanda, Benin, Burkina Faso and South Africa are committed to increasing gender parity in political parties through legal obligations (in both South Africa and Mozambique these were not official government positions but rather party positions). However in practice, this was not adhered to, as is evident in countries where elections were held post review. The Constitutional Court in Benin even held that laws on quotas for women were unconstitutional.

4.3.3 Administrative, judicial and other public appointed positions

General Recommendation 23¹²² of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women extends the application of political power to legislative, judicial, executive and administrative powers, including the formulation of policy at local, national regional and international levels. Further, this concept applies to women’s involvement and participation in civil-society organizations and associations.

Just as in the case of elective office, women are underrepresented in all sectors of public service. The reasons for this under representation are not adequately developed in the country review reports, but a few countries refer to the socially constructed gender barriers women face in this regard. The country review reports of Benin, Mali and Sierra Leone indicate that the burden of work leaves little room for women to pursue active public and political activities, and this in itself is a result of gender discrimination.

In Benin, women’s lower participation is attributed to, among other things, heavy work load, unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work between men and women and lack of child-care structures such as child-care centres. Even in Sierra Leone, where the ward structure of local governments is hailed as a commendable practice for women’s participation in decentralized governance, women have not engaged effectively the wards due to the burden of multiple gender roles.

The African Peer Review Mechanism implementation progress reports make little mention of how countries are attempting to rectify women’s involvement in appointed office. However, Kenya made positive strides after the review by taking an executive decision to ensure that all public-service recruitments reserve 30 per cent of positions for women. In Ghana, in what is probably a great practice, gender activists compiled a list of potential women candidates who can be called upon for public service by the Government.

The appointment of women to executive office to become ministers and deputy ministers is quite low. Data of women’s appointments to public office, such as ambassadors, permanent secretaries and members of or heads of public institutions is also is hard to obtain, pointing to the lack of gender disaggregated data in Africa.

120 APRM country review report of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, No 8 page 123.

121 Strategic Objective G.1 Paragraph 190.

122 General Recommendation Paragraph 7.

4.3.4 Traditional institutions

Traditional authorities and institutions play a significant role in alternative dispute mechanisms and in influencing and shaping the pace of cultural evolution. Many of these institutions unfortunately serve as bastions of patriarchal norms of male dominance and have failed to adopt progressive norms that promote the rights of women. In many countries these cultural or traditional institutions have zero adherence to gender equality norms. Several country review reports recognize the need to transform the traditional political governance systems to conform to human rights principles of dignity and non-discrimination, including gender equality.

In Sierra Leone, obstacles related to patriarchy arise in regard to the political empowerment of women.

The Sierra Leone country review report illustrates¹²³ the case of a female candidate - Elizabeth Simbiwa Sogbo-Tortu - who was disqualified on the basis of her gender from contesting as the Paramount Chief.

This was in violation of the Chieftaincy Act (2009) Section 8, and the courts ultimately overruled this practice. More gender-responsive judicial pronouncements of this sort as well as positive advocacy by these traditional institutions in favour of gender equality are critical in changing practices that are inimical to gender equality in the public and social sphere.

4.3.5 Civil-society organizations:

Women’s participation in the public sphere includes the activities of women in civil society associations and organizations. Women have resorted to alternative structures in response to being locked out of traditional power structures, and non-governmental organizations form a vital outlet. Most country review reports make brief mention of the critical work of civil-society organizations, many of which are pushing critical gender agendas and articulating issues that are integral to attaining the African Peer Review Mechanism objectives on gender equality. This under-emphasis on civil-society organizations is linked to the old African Peer Review Mechanism questionnaire that downplayed the vital work of these entities.

Nonetheless, it is clear that these civil-society organizations add value and all National Programmes of Action recognise them as implementing stakeholders. In the implementation progress reports of Uganda and Mozambique, the prominent role of civil-society organizations in implementing or advocating for gender targets is acknowledged. For example the first Mozambique implementation report makes direct reference to the women’s movement lobbying and bearing results¹²⁴ such as that Parliament passed the Domestic Violence Law 29/2009 as a result of civil-society lobbying through a petition made by organizations that advocate women’s human rights, headed by Fórum Mulher (Women´s Forum).